Kirkbride Buildings - Historic Insane Asylums

Once state-of-the-art mental healthcare facilities, Kirkbride buildings have long
been relics of an obsolete therapeutic method known as Moral Treatment. In the latter half of the 19th century,
these massive structures were conceived as ideal sanctuaries for the mentally ill and as an active participent in their
recovery. Careful attention was given to every detail of their design to promote a healthy environment and convey
a sense of respectable decorum. Placed in secluded areas within expansive grounds, many of these insane asylums
seemed almost palace-like from the outside. But growing populations and insufficient funding led to unfortunate conditions,
spoiling their idealistic promise.

Within decades of their first conception, new treatment methods and hospital design concepts emerged and the
Kirkbride plan was eventually discarded. Many existing Kirkbride buildings maintained a central place in the
institutions which began within their walls, but by the end of the 20th century most had been completely abandoned
or demolished. A few have managed to survive into the 21st century intact and still in use, but many that survive sit
abandoned and decaying—their mysterious grandeur intensified by their derelict condition.
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Dr. Kirkbride

Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride was a founding member of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American
Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII)—forerunner of the American Psychiatric Association—serving first
as secretary, then later as president. Through this association and in his writings, Kirkbride promoted a
standardized method of asylum construction and mental health treatment, popularly known as the Kirkbride Plan,
which significantly influenced the entire American asylum community during his lifetime.
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